30 TIPS TO HEALTHIER RELATIONSHIPS - Sample

TIP #1
Share appreciations every day about the good you see in others.

Sharing appreciations is a great way to bring a smile to someone’s face and warmth to his/her heart. We like to hear genuine compliments and thanks.

Experiment with expanding your expressions of appreciation. If you are a person of few words, you might find this challenging at first. Once you see the results, you’ll be glad you took the challenge.

Here are a couple of examples:

OK: “I appreciate your making dinner tonight.”

GREAT: “I appreciate your making dinner tonight. Driving home from work, I had no idea what to cook. When I walked in the door and discovered you were already cooking, I felt so relieved I would have turned cartwheels if I knew how! Thank you so much! I love you!”

OK: “I appreciate your not giving me a hard time about going out with the guys last night.”

GREAT: “I appreciate your not giving me a hard time about going out with the guys last night. I know you weren’t interested in going to the hockey game and I really wanted to see it. I needed the break in routine. After the game, it was nice to come home and crawl into bed next to you.”

Practice keeping your appreciations clear and concise. Using too many words can dilute your message. Also, if your message is too long, the receiver often stops listening and doesn’t hear your appreciation.

Be sure to keep your appreciations real. We usually see through fake ones.

What real appreciations will you share today?